Puppetry, an ancient art form, has been a cornerstone of human expression, storytelling, and social commentary. From its roots in ritualistic practices to its modern applications in therapy and education, puppetry has evolved into a versatile medium for addressing complex social issues and preserving cultural heritage.
With a rich history dating back to the 4th century BC, in the written records of Aristotle, in his treatise, "On the Soul". The first puppet show is recorded in Greece in the 5th century BC. The performance is called "pantomime", deriving its name from the Greek words for 'panto - all' and 'mimesis – imitative behavior'. The shows mimicked current events or political figures with humorous or satirical storytelling. Even though Greece is crowned for hosting the first puppet show, archeological records imply that the puppets have been in use for a long time in the past.
Current theories suggest that the first puppets were modeled in the form of ancient ritual dolls rather than for entertainment purposes. These dolls were modeled in the image of humans and gods and were manipulated like puppets in many countries such as Africa, Asia, India, New Zealand, North America, and Mexico. Similar dolls are found in Egyptian tombs and the archeological digs in Indus Valley dating back between 2000 – 4000 BCE. Puppetry could therefore have been born in each culture and community at a certain stage of its development and in a specific religious, ritualistic, or shamanistic environment.
The word "Puppet" is derived from Latin, where 'puppis' means 'little girl'. During the Middle Ages in England, puppetry was regarded with suspicion and fear associating the performers with witchcraft and black magic, resulting in their persecution by religious heads. The art was banned entirely from 1469 to 1570 in England. Only during the Renaissance that puppetry once again seen as entertainment and was legitimized.
The origins of our own Kathputli –
The first evidence of puppetry can be traced back to the archeology finds of terracotta dolls in the Harappa Civilization (2500 B.C.) with evidence of toys such as a cow with a moveable head.
Although the archeological evidence dates the evidence of the art form to Harappan times, Indian mythology provides at least two stories to witness the importance of this art. According to one legend, the creator Brahma gave life to the adi, the first nat puppeteer, and created the first puppet for the entertainment of his wife Saraswati. Not satisfied with his work, Brahma banished the puppeteer to earth, starting the line of Nat Bhatt puppeteers. This legend applies most probably to the Rajasthani tradition, nat Bhatt being the name of the puppeteer cast from this region (Sarma and Singh 2010:35). An alternative legend has as protagonist the god Shiva, patron of puppetry, and his wife Parvati. An artisan manufactured two wooden dolls that captured the attention of Parvati—the goddess and his divine companion entered the dolls and started an exquisite dance; when they got sick of this play, they abandoned the dolls, and the artisan was very sad at his dolls being lifeless again. With the help and blessings of the gods, the artisan then invented a system of strings to move the dolls, and so puppetry was born (Chattopadhyay 1995 (1975):159).
The beauty of Puppet dolls as described in Indian literature –
Several literary sources report the existence of puppetry in ancient times. Puppetry is mentioned in the Mahabharata (dated from the 9th century BCE, it reached the written form in the 4th century BCE), in Panini's grammar (4th century BCE), and Patanjali's texts (2nd century BCE) (Sarma and Singh 2010:35). Tamil texts from the 2nd century BCE onwards mention dolls moved by strings (Chattopadhyay 1995 (1975):158). The antiquity of Indian puppetry has been highlighted by Richard Pischel (1849-1908), an important German scholar, who argued that India was the source of Western puppet traditions (Foley and Pudumjee 2013).
Today puppetry are in various forms (shadow, string, rod, glove) and are known by various names across India, a few examples being: Rajasthan (kathputli), West Bengal (tarer putul nach), Maharashtra (kalasutri bahulya), Odisha (gopalila kundhei), Karnataka (yakshagana gombeyata), Kerala (nool pavakothu), Tamil Nadu (bommalattam), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (koyya bommalata, keelu bommalata, and sutram bommalata).
Puppetry in a social setting – The tradition of protest
The disappearance of puppetry in its traditional form started during British rule, only to take life as a medium for protest against the colonies. It is interesting to note that this phenomenon is seen across the globe to date indicating the power of storytelling. The role of puppetry in the 'Freedom struggle of Indonesia against the Dutch', and 'The Kenya Institute of Puppet Theatre fight against corruption' are a few to be named.
In the late 20th Century social change became the main voice and narrative. In the 1960s many theatres chose puppetry to showcase the political scenario of the country highlighting various issues such as policies, the Vietnam War, police brutality, and growing unemployment in the US. Recently this art has been used in the protests against the brutal killing of George Floyd in 2022.
Because of their strong symbolic traits, the characters of the world's puppet theatres always could embody the passions of the audience, and, in some historical contexts, they could express support or hostility towards political or religious figures, risking attracting the anger of the authorities upon them. This demonstrates that the satirical use of the puppet has always been, for this form of theatre, an opportunity to anchor itself to current social and political affairs. Nowadays, the popularity of the French television shows Les Guignols de l'info, in which politicians are mocked under their puppet forms, demonstrates that this satirical function is persistent.
Puppetry: A Voice to the Vulnerable -
In Asia, Latin America, and Africa it is not unusual to find puppets outside theatres, in slums for example. An example is the Black Pinocchio (Italian title, Pinocchio Nero, 2004), a collaborative project that involved the Italian puppet company, Teatro delle Briciole. The three-year project worked with Kenyan children who live on what they can scavenge off the streets of Dagoretti-Nairobi. In India, puppets are used by several theatre groups and social welfare organizations, including Jan Madhyam, a community media-based, educational puppetry company and NGO based in Delhi and Haryana. The puppetry-based weekly "Chowkoo-Pili" series of shows (1984-1990) for Delhi's intellectually disabled youth taught learning concepts and develop social skills and values. These interactive weekly shows were taken to schools, slums, and villages in the Greater Delhi and Haryana region. This work has continued to improve the lives of the disabled, with special attention to girls and women. Other Jan Madhyam development communication programs using puppetry and performance media have focused on literacy, the needs of the disabled, ecology, endangered species, income generation, sanitation, health, and violence against women. The NGO's founder and director, Ranjana Pandey, is one of the pioneers in the Indian subcontinent to explore puppetry as therapy.
Puppets and Therapy -
As an art of synthesis, puppetry becomes an ideal way to create – or renew – contact with traumatized children or adults living on the margins of society. The puppet is often used for training, caring, or to help social or functional inclusion, especially in the United States, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Great Britain, and Switzerland. Other countries, such as South Africa, favor prevention, especially when fighting against AIDS.
Nowadays, the puppet theatre plays two important roles in the fields of therapy and rehabilitation: for patients with various mental health conditions on the one hand, and people with physiological or sensory conditions but no psychoneurological disorders on the other. Furthermore, group therapy workshops use puppets as a means for children and adults to communicate in psychiatric wards. The goal of the workshops is not performance, but healing.
Puppeteers now tell stories on everything from medieval kings, Phulan-Devi, Aladin', Tejimala', and WitchCraft' to AIDS because to survive in this digital world, the revolution has become a necessary component of this centuries-old craft. As stated by Kamaladari Chattopadhyay in her book "Handicrafts of India", "As a medium, however, puppetry has a few equals and scores many advantages over human performances in moving and holding audiences. It suggests rather than instructs because of innate subtlety. IT can indulge in exaggerations or distortions without being coarse or vulgar".
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